


Look How They Shine For You

by jfcmartin



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Characters become younger, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-17 22:39:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7288897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jfcmartin/pseuds/jfcmartin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After spending the night strolling by the Thames, Dan and Phil wakes up as children.  With the help of Louise, they try to get back to normal. The problem is, they don’t know how.</p><p>Beta Reader: <a href="http://slysdexicdarapox.tumblr.com/">slysdexicdarapox</a>!!! Thanks!!!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Look How They Shine For You

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my entry for the [Phanfiction Exchange](http://phanficexchange.tumblr.com/post/144470077999/for-miraculous-ladyphan) for [miraculous-ladyphan](http://miraculous-ladyphan.tumblr.com/)!!! I hope you like it!!! (I was meant to post this like a long time ago but I just got the time now lmao)
> 
> Idk what tag should I put but you know basically they get younger bc of magic.
> 
> Kudos to my beta [slysdexicdarapox](http://slysdexicdarapox.tumblr.com/)!!!! Thanks a bunch!!!

Dan groggily turns his phone alarm off and stretches his arms, squinting his eyes to adjust to the sunlight peeking through the blinds. He usually feels chilly as soon as he wakes up, despite sleeping under a thick duvet and having the radiator cranked up to the third setting.

Dan hates mornings, and he absolutely _despises_ Saturday mornings. It means it is his turn to do the chores and run errands, like buying the cereal Phil practically inhales when Dan wasn’t looking or to get the dry cleaning five blocks away from their building. He turns to his side and hugs his Haru pillow, deciding that those would be a problem later.

He feels the heaviness of responsibility sinking in and sighs, pulling his covers off and sitting up. A voice nags in his head to get up and get things done. He yawns and wills his legs to stand up and start walking. Dan could literally walk around the flat with his eyes closed; he goes to the kitchen doing just that.

He sighs and reaches up for his box of cereal, which he expertly hid in the cabinet on the left, behind all the pasta sauce Phil doesn’t bother touching. Dan waves his arm around in the air to find the cabinet but his hands didn’t touch anything. He is starting to get annoyed and he squints his eyes a bit open.

Dan mumbles confusedly as he saw the cabinet seems to be a bit higher than it usually is; he is practically at eye level with the toaster sitting on the counter. As Dan’s eyes start to adjust with the light, he realizes that something is wrong. Either the entire flat grew taller or he miraculously shrunk. Both options scare him.

He shuffles to the bathroom to look at himself in the mirror. Once he sees his reflection, he gasps. His hair is blonde, his jaw seems to be rounder, and his features look softer. He’s probably lost a foot of his height as he watches his reflection on in the lower half of the mirror.

“What the fuck?” he whispers, wincing at the squeakiness of his voice.

 _Am I twelve_? Dan thinks, but immediately waves it off his head. _Then what are you doing in your flat, you living flop_ , he scolds himself. This could all be a weird dream he’d tell Phil as soon as he wakes up. He’s seen articles about lucid dreaming, and this could be it. _Speaking of Phil, where is he_?

Dan turns and heads to Phil’s bedroom, he noticed that the door was slightly ajar. He knocks gently and clears his throat.

“Phil?” he calls, attempting to make his voice sound a bit deeper. He cringes. _This dream should end any minute now_ , he prays, slapping his arm to wake himself up, but nothing happens.

He knocks on the door slightly louder this time, saying, “Phil, are you awake? Or decent?” Dan rolls his eyes and pushes the door open.

“Phil, you’ve gotta help–”

Dan stops mid sentence and gasps. Phil is nowhere to be seen, but there’s a baby on the middle of his bed that resembles the one he’s seen in Phil’s latest video.

The baby is wearing a baby blue onesie with white stars scattered around it. His hair is unmistakably ginger and his cheeks are rosy. The baby is fast asleep and his hands are by his sides. Dan couldn’t bring himself to interrupt him from his peaceful slumber, but he has issues to attend to: like the fact that they are literally children.

“Phil?” he whispers as he crept closer to his bed. Dan nudges his shoulders a bit, scared that he might break, and watches him closely. Baby Phil opens his eyes and scrunched his tiny nose. Dan stares at him for a few moments before he starts to cry.

“Of course, what did you expect?” Dan mutters. Baby Phil thrashes his arms and wails even louder, and Dan is getting even more scared. He takes him on his arms and a foul smell hits his nose.

He curses silently, realizing that Phil needed changing. But where can he get diapers? Where did this diaper even come from? Dan has so many questions that made him realize that he isn’t ready to take care of another living thing.

He cradles Phil with one arm and hurriedly brings him to his own room, where his phone sat on his bedside table. He presses his thumb gently onto the home button, relieved that it still detected his fingerprint.

He went through his contacts and scrolled down. He shook Phil up and down his arm in attempt to calm him down, but he seems to get more annoyed. Dan only knows one person that could possibly help him within a twenty kilometer radius.

“Please pick up,” Dan chants, watching Phil worriedly as snot dripped down his nose. He cringes and sighed in relief as his friend picked up.

“Hello, Dan?”

“Louise! Please help me,” he pleads. He paces back and forth by his bed before sitting down. He thinks it is best to keep Phil on his arm since he wouldn’t want any excretions on his duvet.

“Are you okay, Dan? Your voice sounds funny. Wait a minute, is that a baby?” Louise asks worriedly.

“I literally can’t explain this because I have absolutely no idea what’s going on,” Dan confesses. “Please just get over here and see for yourself. And bring some baby stuff.”

“Okay, but Dan please don’t tell me you kidnapped a baby,” she says and Dan heard rustling from her end of the phone.

He rolled his eyes, “Wow, I can’t believe you would think I can handle the responsibility.”

“Just checking!” she defends. “I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”

“Thank you,” Dan sighs and drops the phone call.

He thanks every single god above that Louise is in London for the week for her cousin’s wedding. She’s been talking about it for the past few days, she was quite excited about it, especially since Darcy was going to be the flower girl. She’s checked in a hotel not too far away from them, so it won’t take her too long to get to them.

Dan looks at Phil and sees him wearing a foul expression. “Do you want me to remove your diaper?” Dan offers. Phil replies by hitting him repeatedly on the shoulder. “That would be a no.”

He walks to the bathroom and grabs one of Phil’s towels. He attempts to fold it neatly onto the space by the sink and drops Phil on his back. Phil looks annoyed and Dan crosses his arms.

“What do you want me to do? It’s either you’re gonna suck it up and wait till Louise is here or let me clean you up,” he says, feeling a bit weird how he’s talking to a literal baby like a full grown adult. Or the fact that he’s offering to change Phil’sdiaper.

Phil sniffles and wriggles on the towel, Dan having to hold him still so he won’t fall off. Dan realizes Phil could be really stubborn as a baby, so he decides to just let him be. He hopes this is just temporary so he doesn’t have to put up with all this nonsense.

“I wonder what happened to us,” Dan muttered, getting tissues under the sink to wipe it on Phil’s tear-streaked face. He gently pinching it on his nose to get rid of his snot.

“What did we do? Was there like a weird ray thing that zapped us and turned us into children?” he theorizes. Phil’s eyes widened and he giggles, probably agreeing to him.

Usually, he would come up with a more bizarre, over exaggerated theory that involves aliens. Its their usual 3 AM ritual to get up and talk about random stuff that the other could think of and turn it into a battle of who comes up with the weirdest theory. But for now, Phil can’t even say a word.

“Did we do anything different yesterday?” Dan thinks. “We crossed the Tower Bridge and we walked by the Thames. Oh, and to the Leadenhall Market. Felt anything funny then?” Phil shakes his head. He’s glad Phil could understand what he’s babbling about.

“I’d be really annoyed if this happened because of last night because honestly it was the best time of my life.” Dan sighs, reminiscing the small adventure they partook.

A buzz interrupts Dan’s thoughts and scares Phil, making him snap and cry again. Dan groans and picked him up, walking out to the intercom and to buzz Louise in. He curses at the intercom for being up so high; it takes him a few attempts to reach it while standing on his toes with a wriggling Phil in his arms.

Dan finally presses the button with his nose and hears, “Dan, I’m here!”

He clears his throat and says, “Hey Louise! Come in.” He presses his nose on another button to open the door. He looks at Phil, exasperated, and says, “She’s here, stop fussing.”

Dan walks up to the door after hearing a gentle knock. He sighs, bracing for the violent reaction that’s sure to come, and opens the door.

Louise’s greeting seems to be caught in her throat as she sees Dan holding baby Phil. She takes a small step back and closes her mouth, realizing it has been open the whole time. She whispers, “Dan?”

Dan grimaces and says, “Surprise! Please help.”

She cautiously walks closer and into the flat with Dan slowly backing away, maintaining the short distance between them. Her grip tightens on the paper bag she’s holding on her left hand and her other hand instinctively holds on to the strap of her brown leather sling bag. Phil continues to cry, oblivious of what’s happening.

Louise sighs and takes him from Dan’s arms, scrunches her nose at the bad smell, and rushes to the bathroom. She has visited their flat several times in the past so she knows where everything is. She asks, “What happened?”

Dan follows her and replies, “I don’t know, Louise! I just woke up this morning and saw myself in the mirror then I went to Phil’s room and I saw him, well, like that.” Louise lays Phil on the towel Dan placed on the sink earlier, dropping the brown paper bag she has been holding by her feet. She hands her sling bag to Dan, watching her intently as she took off the diaper, folding it into a small ball, and dropped it into the bin.

She proceeds to take something from the brown paper bag, which turns out to contain diapers. They’re probably Darcy’s diapers since they have little unicorns and hearts on them. Louise then starts to clean him up with a wet wipe and puts one of the diapers on him.

Phil is finally starting to calm down to Dan’s relief, while Louise tickles Phil’s stomach making him giggle. She wraps him up in a blanket since she didn’t have any clothes for him yet.

Louise smiles to herself and turns around, frowning at Dan. “I just saved your butt. You’re welcome. What happened?”

Dan sighed, “I’m not really sure. I literally just woke up.”

“Well obviously something happened,” she states, picking Phil up and carrying him. He watches her intently as if she was going to do a trick, but she simply picks up the paper bag at her feet with her unoccupied hand.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Dan rolls his eyes and exits the room with Louise’s bag slung over his shoulder with Louise following closely behind him.

They both sit on the sofa to think for a moment. The only noise in the room is Phil mumbling incoherently.

It’s always good to be friends with a mother figure, Dan thinks. It’s easier to explain to a friend that you and your roommate have magically de-aged overnight than to your actual mother. It would raise more questions and probably their blood pressure.

“Okay, if this didn’t happen today, then it must’ve happened yesterday. What happened then?” She asks as she takes a bottle from the paper bag and holds it out to Dan. Realizing what she wants him to do, he takes the cap off. Louise starts to feed Phil.

“We were just talking about that too,” he says, playing with the cap.

“We?”

Dan gestures to the baby fiddling with the bottle. “He sorta understands stuff, I think. But he can’t talk.”

Louise furrows her eyebrows and nods slowly.

“How are you so calm about this?! I’m _twelve_ apparently and Phil can’t even _walk_ yet!”

She sighs and says, “Well panicking won’t do any good either, right? We’re just gonna have to go retrace your footsteps from yesterday or something and see if we can find anything out.”

“Can I at least get dressed first?” Dan asks as he stands up, “Or have some breakfast?”

Louise leans back on the couch. “Well hurry up! The sooner we leave the sooner you get back to normal.” Dan grumbles and walks to his door, slamming it loudly after he enters.

* * *

“What were you guys doing by the Thames at 9 PM?” Louise asks as they walk out of the Tower Hill Station, with Louise pushing Phil in a stroller from her friend, Caroline, one of the mothers she met from Darcy’s day care. They also manage to borrow the trousers and shirt her son has grown out of. The woman was too preoccupied with Phil’s charm to question why did she never talks about these cousins visiting from Northampton.

Dan looks at his feet and shoves his hands in the pockets of his grey hoodie, trying to think of a way to avoid answering her question. He watches Phil play with the mobile of planets and stars dancing above him, envious that the infant didn’t have to deal with any of their problems at the moment. Dan has to do all the talking for both of them.

“Phil and I decided to go for a walk,” to make the long story short.

Louise scoffs, “Dan and Phil? Taking walks?” Dan shoots her a glare. “I know you guys don’t usually take walks, but I’m sure you know that you don’t have to take the tube to walk.”

“We were also gonna buy pastries for Cornelia.” It was a half lie. They only remembered her birthday was in two days at the last minute and were lucky enough to find twenty pounds in the inner pocket of Phil’s coat, since he only had five.

“Where?” she asks as she stops walking and presses the button for the pedestrian crossing.

“Leadenhall market. We bought it once and she literally inhaled her share in five seconds,” he bounces on his feet and tips over to look at Phil, who is now playing with his lion plushie.

“Aw, well I’m sure she’ll be happy.” Dan sighs in relief.

“But wait,” they start to walk, along with the rest of the people around them, and Dan internally groaned. “Cornelia’s birthday is tomorrow. Couldn’t you just do it today, if ever? Why go out at 9 PM?”

Dan wants to say that it was Phil’s idea to go to the Thames. Dan was almost finished editing his Internet Support Group video when Phil came to his room and suggested it. He wants to tell her everything since it could help them out but he didn’t want to share the details that came along with it.

_“I just wanna see the stars, Dan,” Phil mutters, resting his head on Dan’s lap as he sits cross-legged above him._

_“There are stars back home too, Phil,” he points out. He takes off Phil’s hood, brings his hands to his hair and runs his fingers in it. Dan always adored Phil’s hair and he knows that he enjoys when Dan plays with it._

_Phil giggles as Dan touches the crook of his neck. “Yeah but this is cooler though. It feels opener.”_

_“I don’t think that’s a word.” He lowers his head and touches Phil’s nose with his. He closes his eyes and took steady breaths._

_“Can opener,” Phil mumbles before kissing Dan on the forehead._

_He chuckled. “Not in that context, you dingus._

_“Your dingus,” Phil corrects._

Dan and Phil had planned to tell their friends that they had started dating. They thought they would do it when they start shooting the Youtube Rewind so they could have enough time to practice it and avoid fucking up.

Besides the fact that Phil is a baby, Dan didn’t exactly envision his twelve year old self bringing the news. Knowing himself, it would be a complete disaster. It would be a miracle if he strings three coherent words to express what he’s trying to say.

“We had a lot of plans today,” he stammers.

“Yeah, like?”

“Well, we were gonna film two videos today. Since we’d be busy. When we go to Manchester.” A lie. “And we’re cleaning the flat.” Another lie. Dan knows Louise will never fall for any of his bullshit. He’s just clinging onto the off chance that she would just go with it.

She didn’t. “Must be really hard to do split the work, don’t you think?” Louise says.

“And we’re gonna do a joint live show!” He slaps himself on the forehead, suddenly remembering the tweet he posted last Wednesday, announcing that they had had to do it since they’d be gone for three days. “How are we supposed to explain that?

Louise shrugs, obviously noticing the subject change. “I don’t know, tell them Phil had a sore throat.”

Dan sighs. “I can imagine the number of theories they could come up with when I say that.” He fishes his phone from his pocket and opens the Twitter app. He creates a new tweet but couldn’t think of what to say.

_Due to unfortunate circumstances, we couldn’t do the live show today. The fire nation attacked._

His head stays low as he follows Louise’s feet along the Tower Bridge. Lots of tourists walked with them, taking pictures with the river, the tall structure of the bridge, or some buses passing by. He was relieved no one recognized Louise, or got forbid him from his ancient website. He couldn’t even explain what happened to his friend, let alone a fan.

Louise takes the liberty of changing to some dull colored clothes. Her dress is still pink, but less bright to attract people’s attention and to avoid people recognizing her. They are trying to keep their profiles as low as possible before they get back to normal.

Dan presses the tweet button and refreshes the page after twelve seconds, earning a lot of responses from fans, mostly disappointed and some angry. A handful are understanding and says it’s alright and scolds the others for reacting that way. He smiles and keeps his phone back in his pocket.

Louise turns a bit to the side and stops by the railings. Dan could see Phil is shuddering at the cold, so he walks closer and tucks the blanket around him for a little warmth. There aren’t many people around them, but to be sure, she whispers, “Okay. Where do you wanna start?“

He laughs nervously and asks, “Start what?”

“Telling me?” She says, knowing that he knows exactly what she means, but didn’t have the will to respond.

He took a deep breath and scanned the crowd. Anyone could be eavesdropping and hear what he says, and it terrifies him. He felt what it’s like to be twelve again and being held on the spot. The pressure he had at school when asked to answer the question on the board. Even if he knows exactly what to say, he still feels and knows that he will fuck it up.

“I-um, Louise,” he starts, rubbing his sweaty hands on his jeans.

Louise offers him a sad smile and says, “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

Dan nods shyly and clears his throat. “I’m sure you probably know what I’m trying to say here.” Louise is clever, and Dan is aware of that. He hopes she gets the message so he didn’t have to say it.

She shrugs and replies as her voice cracks, “I mean I could be. But it might be something else.”

He rubs his hands on his face. “Louise. Phil and I—”

Before he could even break the news to her, she pulls him into a bone-crushing hug. Dan isn’t used to having someone taller hugging him, since the tallest person he’s is probably ever met is himself. He feels smothered and pushes at Louise until she loosens her grip, though she continues to hug him.

“I’m so happy for the two of you!” She finally steps back and Dan gasps to catch his breath.

“Thanks,” he winces. “We were planning to tell you guys sooner or later, but we didn’t exactly envisioned it to be like this.”

Louise smiles endearingly and ruffles his hair; she loves doing it even when he taller than her. “Well I’m proud of you guys.” She wraps an arm around him and pushes the stroller with the other. “And I’m gonna fix this mess.”

________

“And we went here,” Dan says, standing on the grass and surveys his surroundings. He has no idea what he’s looking for. It would’ve been easier if he knew the root of this entire problem. Was it a bug? Was it a potion?

He watches Louise leaning on the stroller tapping away on her phone. She said she’s looking up some forum with people probably experiencing the same thing. Dan watches as Phil hiccups before dozing off.

_“We’re soaring!”_

_“Flying!”_

_“There’s not a— hic!”_

_Dan furrows his eyebrows and releases Phil’s hand. “I’m sure that isn’t part of the lyrics, Phil,” he says before sitting by a table right in front of a closed restaurant. Phil sits across from him and holds a finger up._

_“Wait for it. Hic!” Phil rolls his eyes and covers his face. “I hate hiccups!”_

_Dan laughs. “I think your hiccup is adorable.”_

_Phil slumps on his chair. “Not if it feels like—hic! your lungs are getting sucked out of your body.” He crosses his arms and hiccups again. Dan leans closer, counts down from five on his fingers, before Phil hiccups again. He laughs and counts down again, cueing Phil’s next hiccup._

_“Dan!”_

“I found one!” Louise announces. Dan jumps down from the concrete bench and walks up behind her. He peeks at her phone and sees a chat going on.

“Who’s this?” Dan asks, pressing his cheek onto Louise’s arm. She decides to take a seat, so she walks to the concrete bench and pulls the stroller closer to them. Dan really needs the nap more than Phil did.

“I met him in a forum,” she mutters, “He says it happened to him six years ago. Apparently it’s an annual thing.”

Dan furrows his eyebrows. “What?”

Louise scrolls through their conversation and says, “‘Five people have asked me the same thing, and this is what i always tell them…’ He’s still typing.”

Dan rolls his eyes, “We don’t have time for the mystery.”

“Well he did ask if you ate something from the lady named Daphne from the Leadenhall market. Anything?”

_Phil scans through every single stall or booth to see if anything would strike his fancy. At least, the ones that are still opened. They’ve had a race to see who could survive a zombie apocalypse and Phil won. As the loser, Dan has to buy something for him._

_“Good evening, dears. Would you like to try some of my homemade cookies?” an old lady asks, sitting behind a small crooked table beside a closed cheese booth. She’s dressed like a fortune teller, with colorful embroidered cloths draped on her. The table is filled with an assortment of cookies, each with a unique design._

_Phil happily agrees and took the cookie that grabbed his attention the most, which is the one shaped like a cactus with green frosting. He smiles and turns his head to Dan._

_“This, Dan! Buy me this,” he demands while chewing the cookie. Dan rolls his eyes and fishes for the five pounds in his pocket._

_“How much are they?”_

_“Three for a dozen,” she replies with a gentle smile. She took a brown paper bag with the words Childhood Memories written in red script and a pair of tongs and told him chose the cookies he wants. Phil didn’t talk throughout the entire transaction because he was busy eating._

_Dan decided to get five of the cactus shaped ones and one from each of the other shapes. The woman said she would give Phil’s cookie for free so Dan took twelve. When they finished, the woman thanked them and waved them goodbye._

_Phil wraps his arm around Dan’s shoulders and steals the bag from his hands. He takes a cookie, the one shaped like a bear with white frosting and brings it to Dan’s lips. He glares but bites into it anyway._

“Childhood Memories” he mumbles. “She sold us cookies.”

Before Louise could react, she heard a pop from her phone. She sighs and reads the big block of text. She summarizes, “Apparently all of them were tourists, including this guy.”

“Well we’re not!” Dan cries indignantly, spreading his hands in front of him. The wind starts to blow harder and Dan’s hair swept in front of his eyes. He curses and tries to tuck it behind his ear, but it won’t stay there.

“Well you don’t exactly go outside often either.” Louise points out. She takes the stroller to face Phil towards them and adds, “And he said the same exact thing; all of them bought cookies and ate them. He has a theory that the age you end up with is based on how many of them have you eaten.”

Dan’s eyebrows raise as he asks, “Why is it just a theory then?”

Another notification is heard as he explains, “I asked and he just replied ‘Bc all of us only ate two cookies and lost six years but one of us ate four’.” Another notification, “‘And he became six years old”.

“Well tell him he’s right.” Dan sighs. “We bought a dozen and I ate four cookies and Phil ate the rest. Plus the one Daphne gave him as a free sample.” He starts to curse Phil’s love for cookies. If he could’ve just bought that crepe with nutella and strawberries, then they won’t be having this dilemma right now.

She starts typing a reply. “So the cookies were laced with something that made you younger. Literally brings back childhood memories.”

“Three years per cookie,” Dan continues. He grins, in spite of himself, “Dermatologists must hate us.”

Louise swats his arm. “This guy says you have to give her an offering before she departs after sundown?” She says it more like a question than an answer.

“It’s five o'clock, Louise. Unless she has a phone number we can call or an Amazon wishlist, we won’t have enough time to do that,” Dan mumbles. “I guess Phil and I are just gonna stay as we are and maybe join the circus.” He slumps onto the concrete bench and lays on the grass behind him.

Louise rolls her eyes. “Well what are the fans gonna say? I can’t say Dan and Phil got wiped off the face of the earth. Not before your US tour,” she reminds, fulfilling her duties as the mom friend yet again.

“Well what offering can you think we can give? I don’t think she’d be interested in a second-hand stroller, would she?” He suggests as he spreads his arms before him. “And besides, how can we possibly find her again?”

Louise reads the message aloud, “A token from our planet.” She gets up and pushes the stroller.

“Great, so we’re dealing with some intergalactic shit?” Dan grumbled. Usually, he would be thrilled to encounter an alien first hand, but not at the cost of his age. Phil must’ve heard their conversation since his eyes shoots up comically and he bounces excitedly.

Louise shrugs. “Well, I guess we’re just gonna have to find her and see for ourselves.”

Dan scowls and gets up as well, the premise of joining the circus seems to be more tangible than before.

* * *

“Excuse me, have you seen the old lady that has a table here?” Louise asks to the cheese vendor near the spot where her table used to be. They had been walking around for almost an hour but they still had no sign of her.

Dan notices Phil is scrunching his nose, aware of the presence of his arch nemesis. He decides to pick him up and walk a few feet away, but not too far to lose track of their conversation.

“I never seen an old lady here in my life,” the man says. Before Dan could make a sarcastic remark, he continues, “I do see an old lady walking around with a basket since last week. She didn’t show up yesterday though.”

“Did she wear a yellow shawl?” Dan asks, trying to avoid Phil’s hands grabbing for his nose.

“Yes! That’s her. I think she sells cookies but people walk too fast to notice her. Why?” He takes a block of cheese and a huge knife. He lines it up to the center and sinks it in, cutting it in two equal portions. Phil buries his head onto Dan’s neck, and he rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, Phil. It’s cheese. You can be really dramatic for a two year old.” Louise looks at him amused.

“Well, we sorta wanna buy her cookies, it reminds me a lot of my childhood when my mum used to bake them,” she replies innocently and Dan snorts behind her. He is going to give her credit for that answer that could go both ways. “Thank you anyway, sir.”

“No problem.” He smiles crookedly and continues to butcher the cheese, the scent becoming more prominent.

They walk back around the market, to see if she’s back with selling cookies from her basket. Dan is still worried that someone could recognise them. He just hopes that they find her quickly, give her whatever and get things over with.

Someone taps Dan on the shoulder causing him to jump.

He turned around and his eyes grew wide. Phil must’ve recognised her too because he started to flail in Dan’s arms

“Hello dear, do you want to buy some cookies?”

Dan calls for Louise from the crowd and gets her attention. Despite not knowing who the old lady is, she makes the same reaction upon seeing her. She walks up behind Dan and says, “What do you want from them?”

The looks at them skeptically, Dan is starting to get annoyed with it. “I’m just selling cookies! There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?”

“That’s bullshit grandma, we all know it,” Dan hisses. Mothers around him are probably giving him death glares for cursing right in front of a baby, but he is too fed up to care. “What was in those cookies and why did you give them to us?”

She pushes her basket back on her elbow and crosses her arms. “I don’t quite remember forcing you to buy my cookies. You were the eager ones.” Her shrill voice sent shivers down Dan’s spine and it wasn’t in a good way.

Before Dan could continue yelling at her, Louise sighs, steps in and says, “Listen, we’re sorry for wasting your time–”

“Wasting her time? Louise–”

“–but we just need to switch them back to normal. If it isn’t too much trouble.” Dan opens his mouth but she discreetly stomps on his foot before he can jeopardize her calm request. Right now, they did not exactly have an offering to give her, so Louise probably thought it would be best to talk their way through it.

“It’s for their own good! Humans keep events in a linear sequence, that’s why you never get things done. I’m doing these people a favor,” she rages, pointing a finger at Louise.

“If you really want to help them, then you have to turn them back to normal,” Louise repeats as calmly as possible, as if she was speaking to someone of their own species.

She smiles menacingly, the wrinkles below her eyes deepen. “Everything comes at a price,” she whispers.

The offering, he thought. So far, Dan couldn’t think of anything worth giving to a freaky age-shifting alien. He glances at Louise, silently asking what to give, but she couldn’t think of any either.

Phil interrupts Dan’s contemplation by poking his forehead. Dan furrows his eyebrows and swats his hand off, but he still continues his actions. Phil seems to be very aggressive about it, as if he is trying to say something, and then it hits him.

Phil approaches a woman behind a wooden table. Her arrangement is like she’s showing off her planetary diagram in a Science fair. Illustration boards are positioned by the edge of the table with text and pictures about the stones laid out in front of it. Phil squints and bends down to read the text under the dim street lights.

_“Hello, anything you fancy?” the woman asks._

_Phil looks up at her mischievously, points towards Dan and says, “He’s right here, but I’m looking at the cool stones right now.”_

_“Phil.” He snorts. Dan studies the stones as well, each carrying a significant meaning. Most of them are stones for wealth, luck and love. Phil seems to be very engrossed with them, he might actually consider buying one._

_Dan watches him pick up a shiny green gemstone, just about the size of a pistachio, and asks, “How much is this?”_

_The lady analyzes the stone and flips through a blue notebook. She replies, “Five pounds.” Dan is baffled by this; they can buy 150 grams of pistachios with that, but Phil didn’t mind._

_He takes out the money they had left after buying the cookies and hands the five coins to her. She smiles and crouches down to rummage through some boxes before standing up with a small purple velvet pouch. She reaches for the stone and Phil places it gingerly on her palm. The lady puts it in the pouch and pulls the strings to close it._

_“Thanks!” Phil says as she hands it to him. Phil wraps his arm around Dan’s shoulders once again as they begin to walk back to the Tube station._

_“What stone did you get?” Dan mumbles as he rests his head on Phil’s shoulder. He yawns and closes his eyes, trusting Phil not to lead him towards a bush or something._

_“Apparently it’s a peridot,” he explains. “Did you know that it was first discovered in the tiny island of Zabargard?”_

_Dan chuckles. “No Phil, but thanks for telling me.” He proceeds to talk more about it but Dan didn’t process any of it. Its 11 PM and they’ve been walking for the past two hours. He feels the arm wrapped around his shoulders reach for something in front of him._

_When he opens his eyes, he sees Phil pulling the strings of the pouch to open it. He takes out the stone he bought and shows it to him. “Napoleon gave it to Josephine as a symbol of undying love and adoration,” he whispers._

_Dan chuckles. “So I’m gonna play Josephine right now?”_

_Phil takes off his arm on Dan and replies, “No. You’re playing Dan and Phil is giving it to you.” He presses the stone on his forehead, hard enough to leave a mark. “Don’t you know what happened to them?”_

_Dan looks at him sardonically. “I don’t know, Phil. Do I?”_

_“She has an affair with some bloke. Napoleon gets jelly so he thought of having his own affair,” he elaborates, ignoring Dan’s remark. He shakes the stone on his palm and adds, “And I’m not doing that to you, am I?”_

_“Gee, I hope not. Who’s gonna stock up your cereal if you did?”_

_Phil smiles, sticking his tongue in between his teeth, he knew Dan adores it so much. He returns the stone into the pouch and hands it to him before they distance themselves from each other as they enter the bright and crowded tube station._

Dan pats his pocket for the pouch and sighs in relief upon finding it. He takes it out, shows it to the lady and says, “Take it.”

She looks at it skeptically before snatching it off his hands. She opens it and shakes the contents on her palm. Daphne brings it close to her eyes and inspects it with great interest.

“It’s a gift from mother nature,” he says, hoping he remembers it correctly from Phil’s documentary. “And it signifies adoration. Phil and I know you mean no harm and I know you’re a good… creature.”

Daphne scowls and brings the peridot closely to her chest, as if they are going to take it away from her. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay the way you are? You can go back and fix your mistakes.”

Dan shakes his head. “Nah, I’m pretty happy with my life right now. And the mistakes I’ve done have led me to it. ” Baby Phil giggles and pokes on his cheek.

The old lady rolled her eyes, putting the stone inside her basket and withdrawing two slim vials containing a red substance. “Drink this and you will be back to the way you were.” She gives them to Dan and once he got hold of it, she vanished into the air. Not a single person noticed.

A typical day in London.

“Welp, I guess that’s that,” Dan says. He holds the vial in front of them and shakes it gently. He’s quite relieved that they got what they wanted without her giving them some ridiculous task to complete before they got it. All she wanted was some green rock from Earth.

“Let’s just hope it’s not poison,” Louise remarks. Dan did not want to dwell on that possibility. Although it sounds plausible, it’s better than having zero chance of turning back at all.

Dan shrugs. “Only one way to find out.” He attempts to unscrew the cap with one hand, but Louise stops him.

“Not here! Do you want people to see ?” Despite no one noticing the old woman disappearing, Dan knows Louise is right. Also, if they need to call an ambulance, she would be there to help.

They decide to make their way home, continuing to keep low profiles as well as avoiding eye contact with people as much as possible. The walk towards the station and the ride home seems quicker than their initial trip, since Dan finally had a single string of hope to cling on:

He can finally get his hair back.

* * *

“This is it,” Dan murmurs. Phil is sitting on the couch beside Louise, who is holding a glass of water in case things get ugly. If the potion doesn’t work and has different effects, then at least only Dan has to suffer the consequences.

He unscrews the cap and brings the bottle to his nose. He smells it and wrinkles his nose. It smells as if it’s radioactive. He takes a deep breath before downing its contents as fast as possible.

He coughs and drops the vial onto the carpet. Louise offers him the glass of water but he shakes his head, forcing his eyes shut and pulling at his hair as if he were trying to pull it out. Dan feels a burning sensation in his throat, as if his lungs are on fire. Heat radiates through his entire body and every hair stands up. He becomes sensitive of the things around him; he can feel Louise’s heartbeat racing, the air thickening, and he can even hear a tune playing from their neighbor’s flat.

And in a blink of an eye, it just stops, as if nothing happened. He tries to steady his breath and looks at Louise and Phil, both of whom seem like they’ve just ridden a rollercoaster. He touches his jaw and checks his hair. He’s fine; he’s survived the worst ten seconds of his life.

“Well, I didn’t die,” Dan says, his voice cracking. He reaches for the other vial in the pocket of his hoodie and uncaps it. Louise supports the back of Phil’s head as Dan brings the vial to Phil’s lips making him recoil.

“Come on, Phil. It’ll just last a few seconds. Wouldn’t it be awkward if I were dating a two year old?” He jokes, earning a chuckle from Louise. Dan repositions the vial near Phil’s lips, so he closes his eyes and slowly drinks it.

Dan expects that the effect on Phil would be much more severe considering he would transform from an infant into an adult, but it was less violent; Phil didn’t even wince. His entire body glows as his limbs begin to extend, his hair grows, and his face changes. The glow starts to fade away and Phil is back to normal.

Louise sighs in relief. “Thank God you guys are okay.” She hugs both of them and asks, “How are you guys feeling?”

“Like I’ve been tossed around by twenty-five cows,” Dan croaks. He leans back on the couch and adds, “Why does Phil get to have the easier potion?”

Phil laughs. “Hey, you aren’t the one that had to wear diapers the entire day. They’re probably chafing in my trousers right now.”

Louise grimaces and says, “TMI, Phil.” He mutters a sorry.

“How did your clothes just grow with you?” Dan asks in disbelief. The white shirt and blue trousers are just the right size for him. They would be having great difficulty returning it to Louise’s friend, even more when they try to explain what happened to her cousins

“Alien magic, probably,” Phil guesses. His raises his eyebrows and says, “Aww, Dan. You gave the peridot to that lady.”

“Well it’s not like we can’t go back and buy another one,” Dan remembers. “Besides, peridots must be really rare in wherever she came from.”

“True,” Phil says. “Oh yeah, what did that guy give to the old lady then?”

Louise takes out her phone and says, “Oh, that I didn’t ask. Wait.” She goes back to the app and types up a message.

Dan smiles and rests his head on Phil’s shoulder. “I’m glad to have you back.”

“Me too,” he replies, resting his head on top of Dan’s. Phil takes his hand and draws patterns on the back of his palm. He usually does this when Dan is stressed or going through an existential crisis. He sometimes asks Dan to guess what he’s trying to draw, and it’s usually inappropriate.

“Well, he says he didn’t give her anything,” Louise announces sadly.

Dan raises his head and says, “Really? Why?”

“Didn’t want to go back. He reinvented himself; he moved and changed his name. He saw the opportunity to change his life and he took it.”

_“Aren’t you going to sleep?” Phil asks as Dan sits in front of his computer and begins to turn it on._

_He yawns. “As much as I want to, I still have to finish this video, remember? The one I completely abandoned because you wanted to see stars?” The login screen pops up and he types his password and presses enter. The video editing software reopened and he’s back to his progress from earlier today._

_He’s editing a video featuring memes about him from the fanbase. After a week of research and a day of filming, he’s spent the past two weeks trying to battle his procrastination and finally edit the video. He’s almost towards the end of it and if he stalls for another day, he will have to repeat the cycle._

_Phil chuckles. “Well, you enjoyed it!” He leans forward, resting his arms on Dan’s shoulders and his head above his. “Do you want me to make some coffee? It would be great with the cookies!”_

_He shakes his head and says, “No thanks. I’ve had enough sugar for today.”_

_“Suit yourself.” He shrugs and reaches for a cookie in the brown paper bag. Dan cracks his knuckles and begins editing._

_“Can you take your arms off me though? You’re heavier than you think,” he mutters._

_“That’s not what you said last night,” Phil teases. Dan blindly shoots his hand above his head to smack him, he misses._

_“You’re funny,” he acknowledges._

_“Thank you,” he pauses for a moment before adding, “And thank you for coming with me tonight.”_

_Dan shrugs. “What can I say? I can’t resist another excuse to not edit this video.”_

_The only sound in the room is Dan clicking away as he strings clips together and adds effects. Phil leaves the room and returns moments later with one of their battered computer chairs. They have been considering to throw it out one day, but they never got the time to do so. He brings it beside Dan’s butt chair and sits down. He takes Dan’s free hand and kisses it._

_“This has been the most peaceful night of my life. Probably since 2001,” Phil whispers against his hand._

_“That’s because you decided to post videos online to say how ace everything is.” Dan raises his eyebrows and smirks. He sighs, “But if given the chance, would you go back in time and tell yourself not to?”_

_Phil looks at him incredulously and answers, “No. Because by then, I wouldn’t have met you. And you’re pretty much the best thing that’s happened in my life.”_

_“You got that off a book,” he replies knowingly. He plays the part where he reacts to the Doot Howell memes to see if the clips flow well together, and Phil laughs at the picture where Doot marries Poot._

_“Well I’m going to sleep.” Phil yawns and stands up. “Are you sure you’re not coming with?”_

_Dan shakes his head. He plays the Doot portion a second time and realizes one of his words were cut off. “Go ahead. I’m almost done anyway.”_

_“If you say so,” Phil says. He turns to leave but stops and walks back to kiss Dan on the cheek. Phil’s kisses are always tender and full of love. They give Dan fuzzy feelings and make him giggle like a high schooler. “Night. Love you.”_

_He smiles. “Love you too.” And that’s all that matters, and he wouldn’t change it for the world._

**Author's Note:**

> Waddya guys think? Comments and Kudos are gladly and much appreciated!!!


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